The obstacle chamber had become a battlefield of corpses.
Pulverized tortoise shells, obliterated bits of bats, and frozen chunks of slimes littered the icy wasteland. Screams pierced the frigid air.
On one side, hundreds of bats had been battered to smithereens, dozens of slimes and tortoises pulverized. The few that remained alive continued to battle in grief stained rage and animal desperation, driven to throw themselves into certain annihilation on behest of the core hidden unseen far, far below.
On the other side, Victor was beginning to break a sweat.
7 Souls harvested!
Harvested souls: 206
Unraveling the bat souls into raw arcane energy immediately, Victor rushed forward just in time to pulp a tortoise before it could release a building blast of shrapnel.
He had learned quickly that the tortoises were now the biggest threat. His mace made quick work of bats, allowing him to easily obliterate any number of them at a time, and the slimes were really more of a terrain obstacle than an active threat.
The tortoises, on the other hand, took most of his attention. They were slow and easy to kill, but as soon as he came within range of one, he either needed to get as far away as possible or finish it off.
The latter turned out to be far more practical.
Soul harvested!
Harvested souls: 200
Victor didn’t allow himself to rest. Lifting his enchanted mace, he dashed forward into the very last remaining cluster of bats. Two strikes. One strike to freeze them, the second to shock and shatter them.
It worked like a charm, and only one bat managed to make it out of the frost and lightning unscathed, flapping away to sulk in the far corner.
Looking around, Victor steadied his rapid breathing. No tortoises, and no slimes. It seemed he had finally cleared the room — except for the one bat that got away. Victor eyed it with no small degree of avarice. Perhaps the dungeon will give a reward for a full clear.
The bat almost seemed to cower as Victor advanced. Sorry, but you deserve it.
Lashing out, Victor caught the small monster directly in the spray of freezing mist — but instead of striking again, he allowed it to plummet to the ground.
The way it crunched under his heel was rather satisfying.
Shutting his eyes, Victor took a deep breath. It was over. He hadn’t just cleared the room — he had cleared the entire area of the dungeon. Just a few steps away was another engraved stone door, its iron lever beckoning to him.
Victor opened his eyes. Where was his chest?
A single small slip of yellowed parchment wafted down from above. Frowning, Victor stepped forward, reaching out and snatching it out of the air.
Turning it over, he inspected the angular, alien script. It was reminiscent of the writing in his Focus in the sense that it was distinctly foreign in comparison to Vistani writings, yet he could read it at a glance — and yet, it was clearly a completely different language at the same time.
A new magical limb attached itself to Victor’s spirit.
Binding Thread: Rank 1 Enchantment
Victor’s frown faded as the slip of parchment crumbled to ash. It wasn’t what he had come to expect — but he wouldn’t say no to another spell. So far, his summon had proven quite useful. Speaking of which, he should come up with a name for the elemental creature.
A thought for another time.
For now, Victor would investigate the rest area. Storing his crab mace in his inventory, he approached the doorway and pulled on the lever. The stone slab groaned open just as expected, and Victor cautiously ventured inside.
This time, he wasn’t startled when the door closed shut behind him. It was a bit inconvenient that the rest areas didn’t seem to allow him to backtrack — but that was undoubtedly the point.
His understanding was that approximately one in four rest areas contained an additional exit to the surface — though the proportion could significantly vary, and delvers sometimes cleared a dozen areas before finally resurfacing.
Victor hoped he wouldn’t be forced to suffer through that sort of ordeal — especially on his first delve. But it would be what it would be, and by now — he had a little momentum.
The room Victor now found himself in was covered wall to wall in thick, roughly cut wood beams, suddenly reminding him of a fanciful cottage in one of his father’s children’s books.
Victor grimaced. He remembered the pictures being nice, but he vaguely recalled that the story his father told had given him nightmares.
In any case, there was also a crude rug, a low, square table, and a small, simple couch — which Victor immediately wished he could bring back to his apartment. The kids would love it.
If I can ever return there. Victor’s mood soured once more as he thought back to the very reason he was in the dungeon in the first place.
Fortunately, the logs piled against a brick chimney promised at least a small degree of temporary comfort. Approaching the stack, Victor glanced over to his flaming summon. “Can you light these once I put a few in the fireplace?”
The little ball of fire bobbed up and down in affirmation. Turning back to the fireplace, Victor took a few of the smaller pieces of wood from the pile and stacked them haphazardly into a configuration which would allow a good amount of airflow.
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On a whim, he added some of the larger logs as well. It’s not like anyone else will need it. And if they do, surely the dungeon will provide.
“Alright, it’s ready.” Victor watched in delight as the flame darted into the center of the logs, sparking and sputtering against the smaller bits of kindling.
A few seconds later it darted back to his side, and Victor knelt down before the fireplace as mundane fire spread throughout the kindling. As he warmed his hands in front of the growing glow, Victor turned to look at his summon. “So. What should I call you?”
The flame drifted slowly closer, and Victor frowned. “I guess I could throw out a bunch of names and you tell me if you like them? And then we can compare them side by side until you have a favorite?”
Victor frowned. “Wait, no. We could be more efficient. How about I keep saying names, and then you tell me whether the new name is better that your favorite so far. And if it is, that becomes the new favorite. Got it?”
The flame bobbed up and down.
“Alright. How about Scarlet?”
----------------------------------------
Several dozen names later, and it looked like ‘Scarlet’ had stuck. Leaning back, Victor chuckled weakly. “So, do you want to just stick with Scarlet?”
The fiend bobbed up and down happily, and Victor shook his head. “Well then, Scarlet… does that mean you’re a girl?” As he asked the question, Victor realized he had merely been thinking of his summon as an ‘it,’ but now, that felt a bit uncomfortable.
Scarlet seemed to waver for a few seconds before bobbing up and down again. Victor furrowed his brow. “Okay, this sounds a bit silly, but are you sure?”
This time, Scarlet wiggled horizontally, and Victor chuckled again. “But you want to be?”
Victor’s question was answered with a vertical bobbing, and he sighed. “Well then, so be it.”
Vibrating slightly, Scarlet then zipped around happily, leaving a faint glowing trail in her wake. As he added another log to the fire, Victor found himself lost in thought. He had only encountered a few people with summons before — mostly delving students — and while he couldn’t quite remember everything, they all gave him the impression of treating the creatures as mere tools.
But Scarlet was clearly both intelligent and loyal to him. Why should he treat her as an object?
Although, her very existence seemed to be bound to him. What a spooky thought.
Having had enough contemplation of such potentially dark subjects, Victor decided he would experiment with his new spell — or rather, enchantment, as the slip of parchment had called it.
Was it something he could just… activate, without additional parameters? Victor vaguely understood that enchantments were different from spells, but what did that actually mean for him here? He supposed he would simply have to try it and find out.
Flexing his newest spiritual limb, Victor drew upon the reservoir of arcane energy pooling within his soul. It was now far, far deeper than he previously thought possible — even while both trying to conserve whole souls and while expending staggering amounts to fuel his prior rampage, Victor had walked away from the fight with a colossal increase in available arcane power.
Just another way the dungeon rewards momentum.
He couldn’t let himself grow too accustomed to it, however. No, he would need to ration it carefully.
As he channeled his power, a thin, faintly glowing violet thread unspooled from his hand, drifting through the air as if it were weightless. Awed, Victor tried to grab it with his other hand, but it passed right through.
Frowning, he tried again, this time willing the spell to allow him to grasp it. This time, it worked, allowing him to coil the slick, smooth thread around both hands.
Victor grinned. This could certainly be useful.
Unspooling the thread further, Victor tied it into a basic knot. It worked just like as he expected — but trying to untie it turned out to be rather difficult, as the knot was both small and slippery.
Could he perhaps control the thread more directly?
Concentrating, Victor willed the thread to loosen and untangle itself — and the spell obeyed his command exactly. Maybe a little too exactly, as he found it quite difficult to get it to do what he wanted. Instead, he found himself trying to mentally puzzle out how he would have to bend and flex if he himself were the string.
Finally, he worked the knot loose enough that he could pull it apart with his fingers. I’ll have to work on controlling it better. With that thought, Victor decided to test it on other objects. Grabbing a log from the unlit pile, Victor attempted to wrap the thread around the middle — while also making sure to send his will to the spell directly.
Looping the thread around it, Victor nodded to himself. The spell was only consuming a tiny amount of arcane energy — even the flow through his hands was barely perceptible.
Victor attempted to dismiss the spell.
Finalize enchantment?
He wasn’t expecting the luminous silver letters looming within his mind. Furrowing his brow, Victor considered the question. “Yes.”
A much larger chunk of arcane energy left his spirit as soon as he confirmed his choice. It was still almost nothing compared to the size of his entire reservoir, yet it completely dwarfed all that he had spent playing with the thread previously.
So that’s how that works. I can use it how I want with little cost, but once I finalize it — whatever that means — I pay the full cost.
Curious, Victor inspected the log. Nothing seemed different about it. Frowning, he tried to add it to his inventory, but he didn’t even get the sensation of resistance that the bone spear had given him. The log remained perfectly mundane.
A thought occurred to Victor.
Grabbing a second log, Victor bundled the two together, then conjured the thread again. Looping the thread around both of them, he tied a crude knot before repeating the enchantment process.
This time, the change was obvious, if not necessarily visible. When Victor tried to pull the bundle apart, it wouldn’t budge. Grinning, Victor tried again with all his might.
While the two logs shifted slightly, they stayed firmly bound. Victor’s grin grew wider. Yeah, this is definitely super useful. He could already see how it would make the basic mechanism of his class far more convenient — and that was just the beginning.
He would still have to test the true strength, of course. In his experience, even the worst ropes were far too strong for most people to snap bare handed.
Tossing the enchanted bundle to the side, Victor stood up and stretched, before glancing over to Scarlet. “So, what do you say we continue on?”
In truth, Victor felt like he deserved a longer rest — but he couldn’t forget that his family was in all likelihood being held captive by a monster. He couldn’t truly rest until he got the situation resolved.
Scarlet bobbed up and down rapidly. Victor smiled at her. Thinking of his summon as another person wasn’t just the right thing to do — it might also help him feel less isolated and alone.
Nodding to reassure himself, Victor stepped over to the stone door marking the exit. Buttoning up his cloak again, he then raised the hood and conjured his mace.
He intended to first use the stealth ability of the cloak to gather reconnaissance — but he also needed to be prepared in case of an immediate attack.
After taking several deep breaths, he pulled the lever and stepped back.
The first thing he noticed was that whatever area was on the other side wasn’t just hot — it was humid. Just the first waft of air was enough to assure Victor that the climate would be the polar opposite of the ice caverns.
He was already regretting the design of his cloak.
The second thing he noticed were the noises.
Over the coarse grinding of the stone, Victor could clearly make out the sounds of battle. Screeches, scrapings, and the sounds of violent impacts split the darkness with such volume that he was amazed he couldn’t hear it before.
Among them was a pained human cry.
Victor froze.
He could shut the door. He was still in the rest area, and the lever was right there, beckoning to him. Whatever was happening in the new area would most surely interfere with his plan to take things slow and stealthily.
Victor reached out to pull the lever.
A human scream split the air, and he froze once more.
If it had been a cry of fear, or pain, or anguish, Victor felt that he might have shut the door. But it was none of those things. Instead, it was a roar of rage.
Victor clenched his jaw. Something in the cry resonated with him, and he couldn’t let it go. “Fucking hell.” Cursing to himself, Victor shouldered through the door.
As the stone ground shut behind him, Victor didn’t look back.